Craig Rodney, Author at Memeburn

Ruggedly handsome space-explorer, philanthropist and part-time haberdasher, Craig Rodney proved to the world once and for all that he was impervious to pain when he founded Emerging Media at the tender age of 26. Craig’s dynamic approach and creative problem solving style catapulted the company into the realms of success when Craig saddled a few blue-chip clients and projects, the likes of which include the launch of Mark Shuttleworth’s Ubuntu Linux, and the launch of Google in South Africa. Craig is also a founding member of Africa’s largest podcasting company, and is responsible, at least in part, for the catchphrase “That’s so Raven!” In 2010, Craig became Cruise Director of the HMS Cerebra after the successful merge with South Africa’s most prolific social media agency. The merger between Emerging Media and Cerebra lead to the formation of a full-service communication agency, which focuses on both traditional and social media, and sometimes baking cookies for orphans. Craig’s wide area of interest and encyclopedic knowledge of all things tech makes him an invaluable leader to the Cerebra team where he provides service with a smile to clients such as Vodacom, Samsung, Symantec, Toyota, KFC, PWC and his way-too-hot-for-him wife, Kellen. An innovator, a creative, a mad man, Craig is known to embrace his inner lunatic and encourages his staff to do the same, but not in that prison movie kind of way. Unlike most humans, Craig is not coin-operated, instead, he is motivated by fear; it’s the fear of not doing, the fear of not trying, the fear of not being crazy that drives Craig to excel. Craig believes that “Risky is the new safe” but we’ve already established that he is a nutter. An insightful, successful and happy nutter.

Surviving the storm: why you need to go beyond a social strategy
By Craig Rodney on 25 July, 2013
“We need a social media policy” appears to be the runaway hit buzz phrase of 2013. There’s hardly a business owner or manager on the planet who hasn’t shouted out these words in near panic as the latest employee social scandal breaks in the news. Yes, you absolutely need a social media policy, but they are far from a cure-all solution. If you were hoping for good news, I’m sorry. Tackling the topic of employees and social media is not simple, and thinking that having a social media policy in place will save you is dangerously shortsighted. Prevention above all else A...

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You don’t have a social media problem, you have a reputation problem
By Craig Rodney on 6 February, 2013
I’m really not a fan of the phrase: “you have a problem in social media”. It’s a phrase the online industry uses to describe companies who are having a rough time in the social space and, while it’s superficially accurate, it’s entirely misleading in its simplicity. The phrase is misleading because it speaks to the social media outcome and not the business issue that caused the problem. This ascribes the blame to the wrong party and the ensuing remedies are then applied in the wrong areas. It’s not a new phenomenon, treating the symptom instead of the cause, yet...
Your advertising makes me want to kill myself: the cost of free media
By Craig Rodney on 5 September, 2012
Our entire planet now runs on an ad-supported model and it’s making me want to kill myself. It’s impossible to exist and not be subjected to advertising from companies trying to get you to buy the stuff they’re selling. There is no escape. Ever. Except death, and I’ll bet they’ll soon have ads inside coffins on the off-chance you wake up. Like drug addicts, humans have become addicted to free media -- from television and radio, to online news and social media platforms. While we rarely pay a cash price for the content, we always pay with attention. It’s called...

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The Olympic Games: losing money on social, but not for the reason you think
By Craig Rodney on 20 July, 2012
The Olympic Games, to be held in London from 27 July, are being heralded as the first social media games, where the ubiquity of platforms like Twitter and Facebook will enable competitors, attendees and viewers around the world to share their experience in ways never dreamed of even a decade ago. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reacted to this by putting together a set of draconian rules governing what entrants and attendees can and cannot do when sharing this once in a lifetime experience. Rules for athletes, for example, prohibit reporting of results, or saying anything about the competition, or...
Building social communities: the NOT campaign opportunity
By Craig Rodney on 4 May, 2012
The quiet moments between a company’s hyped marketing and communication campaigns are overlooked and under-valued marketing opportunities. Before the rise of social media it was acceptable to ignore these moments, but we now have the tools and the techniques to convert this ”downtime” into an opportunity to build loyal communities. Companies plan out their annual marketing campaigns with the focus of their budget spend on creating big spikes in interest and awareness. The size of the budget determines how many spikes there will be and how high they are, but regardless of the spend, there will always be quiet periods...

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